Exeriences from maths lessonsPestalozzi Gymnasium Unna, M. Schwarze

Gallery of hands-on activitiespart III

Length of a cord winded round a cylinder.

It is fascinating that the length can be calculated! We will try it out within the next months.

Finding the box with the maximal volume

This is a standard task to introduce into the topic extrem values. The task is easy and most of the students try it out though the result is obvious.

Students can like to invents tasks with the neigbours. You can also add other dies with more than 6 sides.

Dies for calculation with negative numbers

This flexible wooden joint quadrilateral (easy to construct with material from a do-it-yourself store) can be used to discover Theorem of Varignon. So students love this more than using dynamic Geometry software like GeoGebra.

Active work joints

Finding the formula for the surface of the sphere

Students compared the length of a cord that wrapped the surface of a half shere and ist diameter. Result: For the half sphere they needed about two times more cord, that means: Osphere= 4*r².

Approximating the surface the surface of a football

First students did not like to destroy the football and cut out all pentagons and hexagons. They compared the result of approximation by poygons with the calculation using the formula. The difference between both results was not big.

Volumes and surfaces with sets of boxes

Caculations with real objects. Measuring diameter and height, then comparing vulumes and surfaces by given tasks or even inventing tasks with percentages or given volumes or ….

Playing roulette and probalbility

Learning with games is very motivating. One or two students gave an introduction and explained different bets. They played it at home and discussed probabilities with the other students.

Inversion of Pythagoran theorem

This can be easily done with a cordwith knots and 12 eaqual distances between the knots.

We will contínue presenting hands-on activities that are easy to prepare, don’t last long and keep in students’ mind for a long time.